News stories from Tuesday August 15, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The House voted to extend by 39 months the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. The 223 to 189 vote came after ERA opponents tried -- and failed -- to adopt a measure that would allow states that already have ratified to proposed constitutional amendment to withdraw that ratification. [Chicago Tribune]
- A blackout darkened all of Memphis and possibly all of Shelby County in the midst of a strike by police and firemen. Cause of the power failure was unknown but some officials suspected it was connected to the strike. Police supervisors patrolled the darkened streets with shotguns and National Guardsmen loaded their rifles with live ammunition.
Some 500 fans of Elvis Presley stayed overnight on the grounds of Graceland Mansion because they had no choice. The fans were trapped by a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed in the wake of a strike by Memphis policemen. No one seemed to object.
[Chicago Tribune] - The attorney for James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to killing Dr. Martin Luther King, displayed tape recordings, canceled checks, and other items that he said proved the House Assassinations Committee paid "spies" to befriend and steal evidence from Ray's relatives. Appearing with attorney Mark Lane at a press conference was Oliver Patterson, who described himself as an undercover agent hired by the assassinations panel to spy on Ray's brother. [Chicago Tribune]
- The Senate approved a tax credit of up to $500 a year to help offset the cost of college tuition. A separate credit for tuition paid to private elementary and secondary schools was rejected. The bill was approved 65-27 after the provision affecting elementary and secondary pupils was turned back by a vote of 56-41. The measure now goes to a conference committee where differences between it and a House-passed bill will be negotiated. [Chicago Tribune]
- Sobbing, swollen, and begging to go on, Diana Nyad abandoned her Cuba-to-Key West swim today when winds kept her from making headway in the planned 103 mile crossing. "I quit. I'm sorry. I tried so hard," she said, weeping. "I've never done anything so hard in my life." Nyad, 28, was pulled from the water at 5:45 a.m. Eastern time, still begging her advisers to let her swim some more.
Battling sharks, tides, and the Gulf Stream, "swimming nun" Stella Taylor, 48, gave up her attempt to swim from Bimini in the Bahamas to Florida late today after being carried more than 80 miles off target. The Coast Guard said Taylor was pulled out of the water at 3:15 p.m. Eastern time, about 33 hours after she entered the water. She had covered about 112 miles.
[Chicago Tribune] - An official Army report says that while blacks comprised 26.4 percent of the Army's enlisted force in fiscal year 1977, they made up 51 percent of its "prisoner population." The document also says blacks receive proportionately more bad conduct and dishonorable discharges than white soldiers. Gen. Bernard Rogers, the Army chief of staff, has ordered immediate moves toward halting the "disturbing trend." [Chicago Tribune]
- Eleven members and officials of the Church of Scientology, including the wife of its founder, were indicted on charges that include stealing government documents, and planting bugging devices in government offices. Officials of the church, which claims 3 million members, have accused the government of harassing the church for nearly three decades. [Chicago Tribune]
- Industrial production rose .05 percent in July, the same rate as in May and in June, the Commerce Department said. [Chicago Tribune]
- Julie Nixon Eisenhower gave birth to a 9 pound 4 ounce girl, the first grandchild of former President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, a Nixon spokesman said. "The Nixons are anxious to babysit at any time," said Jack Brennan, a spokesman for the former President. "They are obviously very delighted." The Eisenhowers will name the girl Jennie. [Chicago Tribune]
- A winter cold snap has damaged 200 million coffee trees in Brazil, officials reported, sending coffee bean prices soaring on the world wholesale market. Preliminary reports indicated the damage was far less severe than the 1975 frost that more than doubled retail prices in the United States, but Brazil's commerce and industry minister, Angelo Calmon de Sa, said "only big daddy in the sky" knows how high prices will go. [Chicago Tribune]
- Prime Minister Menachem Begin denied that a secret government decision to establish new settlements in the occupied West Bank was aimed at torpedoing the Middle East summit next month. "I don't think I ever heard a more distorted statement," Begin said, adding that the Israelis want "psychologically, a good atmosphere for the deliberations at Camp David." [Chicago Tribune]
- South African cabinet minister Connie Mulder said his country's policies provided better opportunities for blacks than those in the United States. Mulder, minister for plural relations, which covers administration of blacks, said South Africa's policy of setting up separate black homelands was unmatched anywhere in the world. [Chicago Tribune]
- The Protestant wing of West Germany's Christian Democratic Party attacked the World Council of Churches for giving money to the Rhodesian Patriotic Front guerrilla alliance. "Members and sympathizers of this militant organization attacked and brutally murdered 12 British members of a Rhodesian mission in Jane," the party's Protestant working group said. Meanwhile, four black miners died today when police opened fire on a rioting crowd at a copper mine 85 miles northeast of Salisbury. [Chicago Tribune]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 887.13 (-1.04, -0.12%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| August 14, 1978 | 888.17 | 103.97 | 32.32 |
| August 11, 1978 | 890.85 | 103.96 | 33.55 |
| August 10, 1978 | 885.48 | 103.66 | 39.75 |
| August 9, 1978 | 891.63 | 104.50 | 48.79 |
| August 8, 1978 | 889.21 | 104.01 | 34.30 |
| August 7, 1978 | 885.05 | 103.55 | 33.35 |
| August 4, 1978 | 888.43 | 103.92 | 37.92 |
| August 3, 1978 | 886.87 | 103.51 | 66.37 |
| August 2, 1978 | 883.49 | 102.92 | 47.50 |
| August 1, 1978 | 860.71 | 100.66 | 34.81 |